


Bella Swan and the Great Big World

by chocolatecakeandcinnamonbuns



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Charlie swan is no.1 dad, F/F, Not Canon Compliant, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-09-20 23:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17031591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocolatecakeandcinnamonbuns/pseuds/chocolatecakeandcinnamonbuns
Summary: Bella Swan wants nothing more than to be a travel journalist. Rosalie Hale wants nothing more than to see the world the way Bella sees it. The rest of them are just along for the ride.





	1. Big World, Small Town Part One

_“No,” Jacob says, as he holds a wad of paper towel to Bella’s head in the back seat of Charlie’s police cruiser. She looks up at him through her eyelashes, which would have made him feel really small any other time but right now she was crusted in blood. Charlie makes a noise of agreement from the front seat, essentially stopping any protests from Bella. Not that she had very many in her,_ anyways _. She had lost a fair amount of blood._

_Blood was everywhere, on the seats of the car, on Jake, on Bella (obviously), on the steering wheel, there was even a bloody handprint on the window. And yet… “I can get myself to the hospital,” Bella says for the twelfth time, Jake’s been counting. This time it sounds defeated, the words sounding increasingly monotonous to everyone listening. Jake shakes his head once and grins at her. She crosses her arms and slouches back into the seat in mock-anger. They pull into the hospital not five minutes later and Bella has the door to the truck open before the engine has stopped, which causes Charlie to exclaim nonverbally again, this time with a tone of indignation. It sounds a little like ‘ayyoii’ and makes Jake and Bella look at each other and snort. Bella shakes her head a little and immediately regrets it, due to the paper towel adhered to her face. She pries Jake’s hand off the paper towel wad and puts her own hand on the poorly-improvised pressure bandage, confidently stepping out of the car._

_She’s wearing fuzzy lounge socks and Birkenstocks, two pairs of sweatpants, and a grey thrift store hoodie layered over the stretchy black turtleneck she wore to lunch that day. She hopes and prays that no one from home follows Jacob on_ instagram _, she doesn’t need screenshots of this embarrassing day being circulated back home. She thinks about pulling the hoodie over her head to slightly lessen her embarrassment but then thinks twice after visualizing the logistics of that situation. At least she’s comfortable._

_Jake places a friendly arm around her shoulders which radiates a pleasant heat up Bella’s neck and down her back. Bella visually calms, relaxing into his warm touch. They walk into the hospital, Charlie leading the way. His shoulders are back, posture straight, showing that Charlie was in ‘full cop mode’ and neither Bella nor Jacob would interfere with ‘full cop mode’ Charlie. He marched straight to the desk and Jake and Bella settled in to the two most comfortable chairs in the waiting room—they knew, they had been here on a day where the emergency room had been particularly busy a couple summers ago, so they had tested and rated all the chairs in the waiting room—and silently awaited Bella’s admittance._

_They didn't have to wait long. They had barely sat down before Bella was ushered into the emergency room, given three lovely stitches along her hairline, and then promptly sent home with instructions from the doctor to **please** rest._

_Admittedly, maybe partner yoga had not been the best use of Bella’s time, especially due to her painful clumsiness. Lying on the couch and eating junk food is an activity more suited to Bella’s level of hand-eye coordination._

_She lazily pulls a chip out of the bag resting on the coffee table in front of her, dragging it out of the bag with two fingers and placing it lightly on her tongue. Jake watches the slow, painful process with a careful eye before grabbing a handful of potato chips from the bag, squeezing them into dust, and then pouring it into his mouth. They look at each other in a challenge, both chewing. Bella snatches the bag of chips from the table and bolts up the stairs with it. Jacob has almost caught up to her when she trips on the landing and breaks her wrist._

 

 

Bella wakes to a phone call at 6 am. It’s Jake.

“Why the fuck are you calling me at 5 your time? Please tell me you have a good reason because I was having a really great dream.” Bella thinks back to the dream that Jake had just interrupted, which involved a girl, an old car, and getting lost in between big mountains.

“I just thought you might want a wake up call, seeing as you’re coming home today and your flight leaves in four hours.” Jake’s right, and she feels an indescribable lightness in her chest. Finally she’s going home. And this time, she’s going home permanently.

“Awwwww, were you too excited to sleep?” Bella says, teasingly, “that’s just so…unexpected…I don’t know how to feel…I think your feelings are too strong for me…”

“Love you too, you big weirdo,” Jake retorts. He continues talking, chatting about everything new in Forks (not a lot), the drama at La Push High (a little more), and finally the drama at Charlie’s house (apparently his daughter moving in with him and him getting engaged all in the same month has caused quite a stir). “—These weirdos move into town and couple months later Sam Uley and Paul Lahote have both disappeared—“

“What?” Bella says, wanting more information.

“Yeah, they were both missing the whole summer. They showed up a little over a month ago and jumped right back into life on the rez. Everyone's acting like it never even happened. It’s just a little too convenient.” “Huh. I guess I won’t be the most interesting transfer student after all,” Bella says, relieved.

“Oh yeah, there’s no way. The Cullens just scream ‘cult’. The dad is a doctor at Forks General, so you’ll probably see a whole lot of him.”

“Hey, now that’s not fair. I’ve been doing a lot better since the partner yoga incident and you know it.” Jake snorts and Bella hangs up on him. Immediately she’s spammed with texts:

—Hello? Bells? Did you hang up on me?

—I’m sorry, I’m sorry

—I know you’ve been doing better

—We only had one hospital visit last summer and it wasn’t even that serious

—Bella?

Bella laughs to herself and sends him a series of emojis, leaving it up to him to decipher their meaning. She showers and French braids her hair, putting on sweatpants and a Phoenix South Student Council sweater. Wouldn’t want people to forget that she was college-bound, of course. She puts on warm socks and double-checks that her rain jacket is at the top of her Newton Outfitters hiking pack. While she might boil in the Arizona heat for the next two hours, a quick check of the forecast for Forks showed that she had chosen her outfit appropriately. Cold and rainy. Real March weather, just what Bella needed.

She slung her heavy pack over her shoulder. All her other things had been packed and shipped to Forks last week, and Charlie had texted her to say that they had arrived a couple of days before. She was glad that her boxes were there, she missed her books. She really hoped Charlie hadn't watered her plants.

There was no grace in Bella’s departure from that Arizona apartment. She didn’t feel any need to look back and say goodbye. While there may be a lot of good memories there, she had photos to remember them by. Besides, they had painted since those memories. It’s not that she didn’t love her mom and stepdad, but she was glad to be putting some distance between them nonetheless. Bella anticipates their relationship will improve once she’s out of the house. Her mom wouldn’t need to regret her fight for custody sixteen years previously anymore, and she wouldn’t need to worry about Bella alone in the apartment for too long.

Or, more recently not alone, which was the real reason her mom worried.

Bella has one regret leaving Phoenix, and her name is Sara Wu. She was a senior, and she wore her hair short. She had a spattering of freckles across her nose and a bad tattoo of waves across her bicep. She and Bella were in love. The real shit. The reason that Renee finally let go of her daughter? The real shit usually has some wonderful perks, ‘perks’ made far more convenient by the fact that Bella was left alone most weekends. And well, being left alone by her mom and stepdad was the perfect time to be anything but alone.

So Sara and Bella shared the apartment most weekends, Bella and her wannabe surfer-girl alone in an apartment. ‘Perks’ ensued. Of course, eventually, this lovely arrangement had to come to a close.

Last month, Phil and Renee had come home early from a trip, Phil’s game cancelled due to poor weather, and Sara and Bella were discovered. Obviously.

Renee was not happy and figured a small town like Forks might do wonders to her daughter’s ‘modern perspective on love’. And so Bella was sent on her way, and Sara was left behind with a promise that Bella would bring her out for some cold water surfing one day.

Bella walked out to the car her mom had ordered the night before. She had texted Bella, telling her to not worry about a cab. Renee wasn’t even home to see her daughter off. She was in Florida, signing the final paperwork for Phil’s transfer to a team in Jacksonville. Bella wasn’t even all that sad about that. She would see them again, whenever they felt like they wanted to see her. But Sara…they were teenagers and Bella, being the realist that she was, knew there was little chance of them seeing each other again. They were broken up, both of them unhappy with that situation but both trying their hardest to move on. They were too young. If they were meant to happen they would.

She got in the car, watching the familiar view from the apartment to the airport zoom by.

The Phoenix airport was, surprisingly, deserted. There were about twenty other people at the gate, all spread out as far as possible from one another. Bella threw her army green pack onto the floor. There were three patches sewn onto it, an Arizona one, a Washington one, and a Seattle one. Maybe her collection could grow this year. She pulled her book out of the top pouch of her pack and read until boarding was called. The plane was about two thirds full, and Bella had an empty seat between her and the next person. She promptly fell asleep, and woke, groggy, as the plane landed. She rubbed her face and neck, soothing the slight ache in her head from sleeping in an awkward position.

The Port Angeles airport was just as deserted as the Phoenix one had been. There were very few people waiting at baggage claim, two of them for her. She ran at them full speed and they caught her between them, pulling her in for a group hug. Her dad and Jake. Her two favourite people. After a long embrace they separated, and Bella pulled a long strand of Jacob’s hair out of her mouth.

“Jake, you lost something,” she said, jumping to place the hair back on the top of his head rather unceremoniously.

“Good call,” Jake said, “You don’t want to leave evidence at the scene of a murder!” Jake cries the word ‘murder’ so loud that people turn to stare at him. They continued to stare as he picked up his petite friend and her backpack in one fell swoop and ran out of the airport with one over each shoulder.

“What the fuck, Jake,” Bella cries in protest before her words dissolve into gleeful laughter. Jake is fast, and they reach the car quickly. Charlie’s police cruiser. _Great_ , Bella thinks, _that won’t draw any attention to my arrival_.

 

**Hey everyone! This is my first fic, and I love criticism so please tear away. I'll thank you for it.**


	2. Jacob...You Didn't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bella settles in and Jacob has a surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I know you've probably all forgotten about this story, but I really hope that you're still interested in reading it. I made a few slight changes to the first chapter, so if you're confused at any point go back and read that again. School and work have been a lot and I'm just finally coming up out of what is probably the worst bout of depression I have ever had. Anyways, hope you enjoy! As usual, I want to hear any comments or criticisms that you have so please comment! See you soon. I'm not going to promise a coherent schedule or anything, but I can promise it won't be four months between updates. In fact, I might just even update tomorrow. The chapter where we finally meet Rosalie :):)

It had been a long day of setting up for Bella, Charlie, and Jacob and they were hungry. Finally, all the boxes were unpacked, the contents were strewn about on Bella’s floor in piles of disorder. They hung posters in the walls, photos of Arizona—the PG ones at least—, and piled the 30 plants that Bella had bought at a local nursery before leaving Arizona onto the windowsill. There were many different cacti and other plants that would remind her of the landscape back home. All of them needed direct light and little water. Bella hoped they would fare well in her room. It had big, open, south-facing windows with deep windowsills for them to rest on or under in their pots of all sizes. Once everything had found a home Bella, Charlie, and Jacob all sat down on the dark hardwood floor of Bella’s room.

“Let’s order pizza,” says Bella, pushing all her hair from one side of her head to the other, running her fingers towards the ends. The other two nod in ascent. Bella slowly stands, her muscles complaining as she does and she moves to grab her phone from her desk in the corner of the room. As she slowly walks towards it, Bella trips over a shoebox on the floor.  
“Looks like we forgot one,” says her dad. Bella glances down at the box that was almost crushed by her feet. It’s a typical brown shoebox. She can see the corner of a well-worn black T-shirt sticking out the side.  
Suddenly, Bella’s on high alert. She snatches the box into her arms and holds the lid closed. Bella knows that the box full of pictures and other things that she has left over from Phoenix and her friends from school there, and the shirt is Sara’s. She also knows that there are pictures of her and Sara which are extremely incriminating, not to mention a pride flag.  
Knowing that she’s not quite ready to share that part of her life with her dad and Jake, especially after her mom and Phil’s reaction she opens her closet(ironically) and goes up on her tippy-toes to put the box on the top shelf. She shoves it into the corner so that it’s almost out of sight and hopes that Charlie and Jake will forget about the box and its possible contents, at least for now.  
“Yeah,” Bella says, she laughs. “But that one’s not that important.” She laughs, uncomfortable. “Pizza!” she says, changing the subject. “What does everyone want?”  
“I’ll order,” says her dad. “You and Jake go along and set the table, I’ll be down soon.” Bella dials the number into her cell and then tosses it to her dad. Bella and Jake thunder down the stairs, racing to see who can get to the kitchen first. Jacob takes the lead, though Bella argues vehemently that his lead was only by a very small margin. They go back and forth while putting out forks and knives, napkins and plates. By the time they’ve finished, they can hear Charlie on the phone as he comes down the stairs. His tone is friendly like he’s chatting.  
“Stop talking to Paul, and order us a pizza!” Jake yells into the hallway towards Charlie. He turns towards Bella.”Do you remember Paul? I introduced you two in the summer,” Jake says. “He started working at the pizza place and he’s also been volunteering at the station, looks good on college applications and everything. So now he’s befriended Charlie and every time we go to order pizza him and Charlie get to talking. I swear I don’t know how they haven’t fired him—“ He cuts off when Charlie enters the room. He appears to be saying goodbye and shoots a knowing glance at Jacob. He passes Bella back her cell, and Bella puts it on the kitchen counter.  
“You don’t need to be so hard on Paul, son,” Charlie says to Jacob.  
“I’m only hard on him as his friend, you know that,” says Jacob.  
“Give the boy a break, he’s not as tough as he seems,” Charlie scolds.  
“Huh, really?” Jacob asks, his voice latent with sarcasm. “I guess I’ll just tell him you said that! That should go over really well!” Charlie and Bella roll their eye simultaneously at Jake’s antics.  
“Paul’s a good kid, wants to be a doctor. Works really hard for it, too. His grades are as good as yours, Bella.”  
“Cool, yeah, I met him this summer, Dad,” Bella says.  
“He’s transferring to Forks high,” Charlie says. “For the math and science electives that are offered. La Push High doesn’t offer Calculus or Biology 12, and he needs them to get into the programs he wants to apply for.” Bella perks up upon hearing this news, happy that there will be someone at school that she knows, also happy that she’ll have competition.  
Her dad moves slowly over to the fridge and pulls out a beer, cracking the top.  
“How long’s the pizza gonna take, Charlie?” Jake asks, giving Bella a side-eyed glance while he does.  
“Paul said a half an hour,” Charlie replies, looking at Jacob. “Why?”  
“No reason,” Jake choked out and Bella did everything in her power not to laugh at his poorly-acted innocent-facade.  
“Is anywhere around town hiring, Dad?” asks Bella, changing the subject. Her dad nods, sipping his beer and wiping his hand over his moustache before he answers.  
“The aquatic centre and Newton’s are both hiring casual employees,” he says. “I know you’re a lifeguard, but there’s the staff discount at Newton’s to consider,” Charlie says, wiggling his eyebrows.  
“I’ll look into both, maybe if they only need a shift or two a week I can even do both,” Bella says. She loves to work and hates being idle. Bella will fill her schedule as full as she can as soon as school starts up in order to keep up the pace she had going in Phoenix. She lifeguarded there at a year-round outdoor pool four nights a week, which gave her the reddish highlights in her dark, curly hair, and her deep tan spattered with freckles. She would be sad to see the tan fade, but there was absolutely no way she was stepping into a tanning bed to sustain it. I’ll just have to do my best to see the sun as much as possible, Bella thinks. Charlie nods and waves dismissively at them.  
“You two go, I still have some work to take care of,” says Charlie, flopping down into one of the chairs at the dining room table with enough force to make the chair groan in protest.

Bella and Jake move into the living room, flopping down on the massive green couch there. It’s big enough that both of them can recline, and so they do. Bella leans on the armrest with both elbows and faces Jake, one eyebrow raised in faux-concern.  
“So what exactly is it that we need time to do?” Bella asks. Jacob looks around, cocking his head and turning his head in slow, exaggerated movements, before pulling a silver tin out of his pocket. He tosses it to Bella, who fumbles with it but does eventually hold it steadily in her fingers. She sits up and turns the cobtainer around in her hands. She cracks it open, shoving her fingernail underneath the lid and popping it up. She looks inside and grins.  
“Jacob…You sneaky bastard…you didn’t…”


End file.
